


Renegade's Daughter

by WandererRiha



Category: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Avalanche, F/M, Gen, Pregnancy, Rare Pair, Role Swap AU, Selfe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28055493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WandererRiha/pseuds/WandererRiha
Summary: More role swap AU.Sephiroth is the leader of Avalanche, Elfe is ShinRa's star SOLDIER, and they are hopelessly in love.This won't end badly, no, not at all.
Relationships: Elfé/Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Renegade's Daughter

Corel was not the only time they met, the only place they fought, but each time ended in a draw. They were too evenly matched; speed, strength, skill, stubbornness. Violence was the only language Elfe had ever known. How did one convey emotions barely known by name, much less experienced. It was not as if Elfe had never known love inside Shinra’s walls. Her memories of Uncle Gast and Aunt Ifalna were among her most treasured possessions. Se had Genesis and Angea for brothers, friends, comrades in arms. All of them were family. She could never think of them the way she thought of Sephiroth.

Sephiroth too, seemed somewhat at a loss; besotted, yet wary. It made sense that he would be slow to trust. She didn’t blame him. There was a part of her that hesitated to let her guard down as well. In the end, they called a sort of wordless truce. She laid down Masamune, he laid down Veritas. In the back of her mind, she wished their armistice could extend past the two of them into the real world. But it couldn’t. Sephiroth could no more abandon Avalanche than she could Shinra. Each of them had their roles, their destinies, set paths in life that would only draw them farther and farther apart. All they had was stolen moments here and there, moments when they should have killed each other and instead did quite the opposite.

“You know we can’t keep doing this,” Sephiroth told her, voice soft and sad in the darkness.

Elfe snuggled her face against his chest, not wanting to think about that yet. He was right, of course. Their secret trysts would be grounds for treason and execution. Elfe was reasonably sure Shinra wouldn’t do her any lasting damage, she was too valuable, but Avalanche was likely to tear Sephiroth to pieces so small even the ravens would not find them. They could not keep this up. Eventually, they would be caught. Yet the idea of this being the last time made her throat tight and her eyes prickle. She did not want to give him up.

“I know.”

“Come with me.”

That made her lift her head and look at him, blue eyes bright in the darkness. “What?”

“Come with me,” he repeated. “Join us. Or, yanno, not. Just...don’t go back to Shinra. Stay here. Even if you don’t want to fight for the Planet. Stay. For me. For us.”

He took her hand, held it in both of hers, and Elfe wanted so much to say ‘yes’.

“I can’t. You know I can’t.”

“You could,” he pressed.

Elfe shook her head. “Shinra would come after me. They’d never let me go. Besides, there’s Gen and Angeal and Fair and all my men and…” she trailed off, expression strangely helpless.

Sephiroth sighed, nodded. “I get it. You have family to think of. Just...if you ever change your mind, please know I’ll never turn you away.”

She smiled for him, soft and sweet. “I know. Thank you.”

To show it, she kissed him.

\--

Something wasn’t right. Elfe knew her own body, how far she could push it, what could be shrugged off and what was a true injury, what would heal and what needed treatment. This...this was different. If asked, she could not have said what felt different, only that something unmistakably _was_.

She’d never had a cycle, it was the one failure on her otherwise flawless record. Professor Hojo had tested her repeatedly, but had eventually come to the conclusion that she would never have children without outside help. How much help, she wondered, would she need? Perhaps less than Hojo had originally anticipated.

It had been months since the last Avalanche mission, since she and Sephiroth had crossed swords; enough time for her jacket and trousers to become uncomfortably snug. She felt tired all the time, and vaguely queasy when she wasn’t starving. If Hojo hadn’t been away conducting field research, she might have had a solid answer to her nagging suspicions much earlier. But it would have come at a price Elfe wasn’t sure she was willing to pay. Yes, she led a good life, Shinra had always taken care of her. But did she want that same life for someone else? For a child? She wasn’t sure.

She had to be sure. If it was nothing, then she could go to the Science Department and let them sort it out as normal. If it was...something else...a new plan would have to be devised. But first she had to find out.

Phase one involved Elfe pulling some cash from her bank card. Waiting a week was difficult, but she could not afford to arouse suspicion. She stole a wig and some street clothes from the Turk’s inventory of undercover items. Using a washed-out rookie’s ID, she took the train underplate. From there, she wandered the streets of the Walmarket and eventually into a convenience store. After buying what she needed, she got herself some dinner and a few drinks, and then went to the restroom.

Elfe had no idea if the test kit would work on a SOLDIER, or if all the mako would throw the results. The instructions on the box said not. She waited a tense two minutes for the chemicals to react and felt her insides hollow at the double set of lines.

_Shit._

She burned the test in the alley, leaving only a smoldering lump of plastic as evidence. Repeating the process in reverse, Elfe sneaked back into the Shinra building. Rather than return to her own quarters, she went to Angeal’s apartment to wait. Angeal and Genesis were the only ones she could trust, and even they weren’t likely to truly understand.

“Elfe?” Angeal asked, letting himself in, Genesis close behind. His expression was pleased, if mildly confused. “I wasn’t expecting you. What’re you doing here?”

“Guys...I need your help.”

The weight of her words was not lost on them, the air suddenly growing heavy.

“What’s wrong?”

A pause, heavy and awful. “I’m pregnant.”

They both stared at her, dumbstruck. Genesis clearly skeptical, Angeal caught somewhere between alarm and perplexed.

“I thought you couldn’t have kids?” Angeal managed after a moment of stunned silence.

“I didn’t either.”

“You’re sure?” Genesis asked. “Did Hojo tell you?”

“No, and Hojo needs to never find out.”

“Why not?” Angeal asked. No sooner had the words been spoken than he clearly wished he could call them back.

“You know why,” Elfe said quietly. “I’d never see the sun again. One baby wouldn’t be enough to please him, to please the President. They’d want to make more of me. Of us. They’d want me to have as many kids as I possibly could. I wouldn’t be a SOLDIER anymore, I’d just be breeding stock.”

“You don’t really think Shinra would let their Silver General retire to a life of motherhood,” Genesis tried to be conciliatory but his efforts fell far short of the mark. “...do you?”

“The war’s over,” Elfe shrugged. “What good is a SOLDIER with nothing to fight? You can’t tell me they haven’t had the two of you give samples. Hojo tries every couple of years to harvest eggs out of me but it never works.”

They shifted awkwardly, avoiding her eyes.

Angeal recovered first. “Okay. Let’s back up. Sit down, tell us what happened.”

“There’s not much to tell,” she said, allowing Angeal to pull her down onto the sofa next to him. Genesis installed himself on her other side. “I did something dumb. Now I have to deal with the fallout.”

“Who the hell did you even have sex with?” Genesis was genuinely at a loss.

Elfe felt her face heat, studied her lap. “I’m not sorry,” she muttered.

“Wait…” Angeal began.

Genesis’s jaw dropped. “You did _not!_ ”

“Yeah, I did.”

Angeal sighed and rubbed his face, a headache no doubt setting in. Genesis simply stared.

“Commander Sephiroth?” he burst out once he’d recovered his voice. “The Leader of Avalanche? Your heretofore arch-nemesis? _Why?_ ”

Elfe shrugged. “I couldn’t beat him in a fight, and he couldn’t beat me. When I talk to him...it’s like talking to the two of you, like I’ve known him all my life. He’s… They’re not wrong, Avalanche. The Planet _will_ run out of mako one day, it might take hundreds of years, but it will happen.”

“So you’re on their side now?” Genesis accused, angry. “You let him seduce you?”

Elfe snorted. “He doesn’t know the meaning of the word. If anything, I seduced him.”

Genesis had nothing to say to that.

“There’s no doubt?” Angeal pressed. “You’re sure you’re pregnant and you’re sure it’s his?”

“Yes.”

They sat in silence for several minutes, each knowing, but not wanting to say what had to be done. Eventually, Angeal spoke up.

“Do you want to keep it?”

Elfe had thought about it, sitting alone in the restaurant bathroom. There were back alleys aplenty in the Walmarket. She could have gone to a clinic. Even a botched abortion wouldn’t to much more than faze her for a day or two. She’d recover from infection or blood loss or the half-assed efforts of an inexpert surgeon. She could have gone then and there. But she hadn’t. She’d gone to Genesis and Angeal instead.

“I don’t know that my body would allow a termination. All the mako.”

“Do you want to be a mom?”

Elfe looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “I’d be the _worst_ mom.”

“Elfe.” That made her look up. “I didn’t ask if you’d be any good. I asked you if you wanted to be a mom.”

She had to look away again. “You guys are the best. You’re my brothers. I love you. But…” Her words shrank small and fragile. “I want a family…”

“You think you’ll get that with him?”

“Probably not. But I can’t have it here.”

Genesis took her free hand and held it in hers. “What do you want, Elfe?”

She swallowed hard, guts tied in knots. “Not this. I wanted… I don’t know what I wanted, why I thought I could have something for myself for once. I just...I just…”

“You just wanted to be loved,” he finished, squeezing her hand. “There’s nothing shameful in that.”

“Isn’t there?”

“You said you weren’t sorry.”

“I’m not,” she said, stronger. “I’m not sorry for what I did, but I wish this hadn’t happened.”

“And you don’t want to terminate?”

“I don’t think I _can_.”

Angeal sighed through his nose. “Then there’s only one thing to do.”

“What?”

“Run,” Genesis said simply. “You said yourself, the Science Department can’t be allowed to find out. You’d never be allowed in combat again.”

“I want to keep fighting.”

Angel took her other hand. “Then fight. Embrace your dreams. Fight for the people you love.”

“I love you guys,” she said helplessly.

He smiled, sad yet kind. “Fight for your family. Your new family.”

Jumping up, she hugged them both. “Thank you”

“Hojo will be back before the end of the week,” Genesis said, returning the hug. “We need to get you out of here before then.”

“Go pack your stuff,” Angeal told her. “We’ll cover for you as long as we can.”

Elfe swallowed hard and nodded. Before letting go, she kissed each of them on the cheek. “I’m gonna miss you.”

“Go,” Angeal’s voice was soft and tight, as if he too were forcing back tears. “Maybe someday we’ll follow you.”

She let go and tried to smile. “I hope so.”


End file.
